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Google Testing "My World" Second Life Rival?

Posted by CmdrTaco on Tue Sep 25, 2007 11:00 AM
from the can't-be-less-useful dept.
Businesses Google The Internet Entertainment Games
Tjeerd writes "Rumors of Google's plans to create a virtual world that rivals that of Second Life have popped up once again over the weekend. The company could now be collaborating with Arizona State University to test the 3D social network, which may be tied into Google's current applications of Google Earth and Google Maps."
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Submission: Google testing "My World" for launch later by Tjeerd (976354)
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  • The year is 3007. A tour guide is moving people in futuristic suits along a wall containing ancient artifacts--some over 1000 years old.

    Tour Guide: What you see before you on this wall is the registration page of "My World" which was a mediocre success from the once successful company Google ...
    Tourist 1: You mean the religion Google?
    Tour Guide: No, this is before Google was technically a religion, although leading theorists are still in hot debate over whether or not they ever exhibited non-religious behavior.
    Tourist 2: So is this the "MySpace" that almost lead to the completely downfall and lack of productivity of the users?
    Tour Guide: No, this is a sad an unfortunate result of the ignorant times of the beginning of the fourth millennium when companies copied each other in naming conventions. Unfortunately this lead to confusing statements such as "You can find it on my MySpace profile." or "I like your My World house." Remember this after the point in time when everything had an e- appended to the front of it to raise more money due to reasons not yet understood ... although this is before the time of the iCar, iHome, iWear & iMarthaStewartBedSheets.
    Tourist 3: So pre-iGod era?
    Tour Guide: That's right, prior to the death and rebirth of Steve Jobs.
    Tourist 4: What's this ancient script here on this page?
    Tour Guide: That is a dead dialect of someone criticising another user's "My World" and it reads as such, "J00 need a life, ur MW site is teh ghey." Scientists suspect this sort of talk was indicative of people who had experienced full frontal lobotomies or spent more than 10 minutes on a (now banned for obvious reasons) cell phone. The criticizing user is unimpressed with the amount of memory a plain "My World" consists of and seems to be demanding that more objects, backgrounds, dancing jesuses and flying toasters be added to the 'ghey' user's page.
    Tourist 5: What was the point of all of this?
    Tour Guide: Again, a much debated topic although the currently accepted belief is that these sites were often a strange mating ritual as many of the once private messages are now public and indicate that sex, hooking up or unspeakable acts were highly sought after from other users.
    Tourist 6: I can't believe I evolved from one of these 'people.'
    Tour Guide: Indeed, we have come a long way. It is too bad it took a thousand years and the complete eradication of all Microsoft products to return our productivity to nominal levels.
    • Your precognition intrigue me, and I would like to know more. For example, are there holy wars between those who follow the great Google, and those who worship the iGod? Also, there are these private messages asking me for sex, hooking up, or unspeakable acts? Oh, right, I read slashdot. Well, I would still like to know about the religious dynamics of this world. Is there a subculture of people what worship Microsoft and wear red, blue, green, and yellow colored clothes? Is Ubuntu Christian Edition *really* what jesus would download? These are questions that need answering, man! I need to go ahead and start these religions now. I mean, hey - it worked for L. Ron Hubbard...

      • are there holy wars between those who follow the great Google, and those who worship the iGod?
        No, you're confusing the Grand Search-quisition with the great Appleing. The holy wars from the former involved people being held down while their name was searched for on the all knowing search engine of Google. If it was found that they had died or where traitors to any of Google's causes, they were executed as witches. Truly an unfortunate time for people with common names, hence the beginning of middle, post middle, pre middle and ultra middle names in the western world. The great Appleing involved a band of VW bugs driving around the country, finding leaders of Microsoft & Google and pummeling them to death with Apples. We're still unsure of who was behind that, the iGod claims he never used the term 'open season.'

        Also, there are these private messages asking me for sex, hooking up, or unspeakable acts?
        Just claim to be a football player in your My World and then post a picture you find online of one. If it doesn't work, add "shirtless" to the search.

        Is there a subculture of people what worship Microsoft and wear red, blue, green, and yellow colored clothes?
        There are rumors of a sect that still survives the purging of Microsoft however, those who have witnessed a meeting have never survived the chairs of death that soon follow when they are found out to not fully endorse every Microsoft product. Ever seen a grown man cry his way through trying to use Windows 4? Not a pretty site.

        Is Ubuntu Christian Edition *really* what jesus would download?
        No, the third coming was a joyous event. Christ quickly became a hit at parties in his conversion of dust and water to cocaine and coors lite. He doesn't download much these days as he spilled coors all over his only computer.

    • Re:My World Museum Future Tour (Score:4, Funny)

      by sepluv (641107) <blakesley&gmail,com> on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:25AM (#20744819) Homepage

      Tour Guide:Research suggests that the origin of this, as well as many other phenomena designed to cause confusion, was a software company called Microsoft.

      Tourist:You mean the satanic religion that worshiped the one known as Bob?

      Tour Guide:No, this is before Microsoft was technically a Satanic religion, although leading theorists are still in hot debate over whether or not they ever exhibited non-Satanic behavior. They produced operating systems, of which Bob was one that had a very short life after no one bought it. Anyway, following the demise of Bob, Microsoft caught on to the idea of forcing all new computers to come with their new window-based operating system (known confusingly as "Windows") which caused hours of torment by doing the opposite to the user's wishes and constantly succumbing to what was known as the Blue Screen of Death.

      In order to patronise and confuse their users (or The Used as Microsoft worshipers preferred to call them), they labeled everything in their operating system with the prefix, "My" (e.g.: My Documents, My Computer), thus causing many suicides in tech support call centres after the staff tried to explain to callers what they meant by "Can you open your My computer on your computer's desktop?"

  • won't work (Score:3, Funny)

    by 192939495969798999 (58312) <info@devin m o o r e . c om> on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:05AM (#20744541) Homepage Journal
    Everyone will put down that they live at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, and the servers will asplode!

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by eln (21727) * on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:08AM (#20744567) Homepage
    Is there some sort of shortage of virtual flying penises or something?

    Second Life is useless other than an entity for journalists to write stories about so they can look "plugged in" to the Internet culture. Many companies have attempted to maintain a presence there, but they usually don't last because they don't really get anything out of it. Why would Google's offering be any different? Just because they're Google, so everything they do is automatically better?

    Maybe Google is looking for an entry into the burgeoning banking scam or furry porn industries.
    • Second Life was big because it had potential that was killed by trolls and the ability to change the world too much. If google can make a good version, it's possible that it'll succeed and be something worth looking at. Not likely, but possible.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Alioth (221270) <no@spam> on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:16AM (#20744691) Journal
      Second Life is really 3D IRC, with a much poorer frame rate than the old-skool IRC.
      • So... Second Life is just VRML from like 10 years ago?

        • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by eno2001 (527078) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @01:42PM (#20746739) Homepage Journal
          Yep. When I first saw Second Life I was reminded of my forays into VRML sites (usually Java based) back between 1995 and 1997. I can't see what the difference is other than the client, more CPU and GPU power and higher bandwidth. Beyond that it's basically IRC with a 3D environment that passes for a GUI. The way I see it, Second Life is a lot like going through real life with the use of one eye, one ear and one finger. Hmmm... sounds kinda like a dalek. Anyway, I think I'll be more interested in something like Second Life when the environment is fully immersive. By that, I mean, I should feel like I'm somewhere else and have full function of my entire body. I shouldn't see the room I'm sitting in. And physical actions in the space should correlate to certain real things in real life. Being that the kind of technology to pull that off is probably 75-100 years off, I don't think I'll be seeing it.

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Saxerman (253676) * on Tuesday September 25 2007, @03:43PM (#20748341) Homepage

        Second Life is really 3D IRC, with a much poorer frame rate than the old-skool IRC.

        And the various MMORPGs are just IRC with Auto-Attack. I agree with you, but you're missing the longer term pictures our Internet Overlords are looking upon. Most of us already 'go online' every day, and this manifests though various and unconnected internet clients which each do their own things, with some degree of overlap. The Brave New Future would be one in which an Internet Overlord can create a single client to rule them all.

        Of course, those of us in the UNIX camp of 'do one thing and do it well' would fail to see why you would want to bundle a mail client and a web browser, and IRC+various IM clients together into one bloated application that doesn't do any individual task well. (Wait, I've heard of that before, haven't I?) And while a 3D everything browser might seem foolish to those of us who use a command line, the unwashed masses might not agree. "I know this, this is UNIX."

        We've already reached the point where we have PCs with massively more processing power than they need. (Yeah, yeah. Those of you doing real work quiet down.) Grandma's email machine doesn't need that extra GPU or dual cores, or phat Bus so she can view pictures of her grand kids. But... what if those pictures were placed inside an easy to navigate virtual world! Where she could sit in the same virtual nursing home as her peers, and ogle each others grand children? Think of the new virtual real estate we could place advertising on?!

        And, of course, if you think cleaning up her compromised PC was bad... wait until our virtual havens are struck with flying.penis.worm.F7!

      • Re:Why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Andrew Kismet (955764) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @12:36PM (#20745931)
        Camping's created entirely by the users... it'll die as soon as the traffic algorithm is fixed so camping is not longer needed to try and boost people's traffic. Camping is just really basic Search Engine Optimisation.
        SL is entirely creative and consumptive. There are no goals, just creators and consumers and a whole lot of chat inbetween.
        I find the socialising comfortable enough in the areas I hang out, and I love being able to script and manipulate objects 'live' with others. Great collaborative opportunities.

        • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by PopeRatzo (965947) * on Tuesday September 25 2007, @05:31PM (#20749619) Homepage Journal

          There are no goals, just creators and consumers
          Exactly what is it they are creating or consuming? Nicely-dressed cartoon characters?

          Second Life is a long way from being virtual reality's killer app. In fact, it can be argued that by creating the false impression that something is actually going on there, Second Life has set back VR by at least a decade. If given a decently-crafted interactive multiplayer virtual reality application all that results is a bunch of advertising and cybersex, a lot of people would assume that the entire enterprise is a waste of time and energy.

          That would be a shame.

          Great collaborative opportunities.
          This is exactly what I'm talking about. Second Life is to "great collaborative opportunities" what an unsharpened pencil is to the complete works of Shakespeare.

  • Ahh, Rumors (Score:5, Insightful)

    by oahazmatt (868057) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:09AM (#20744577) Journal
    I love rumors. Rumors make me believe everything will be better and just the way I like it. Google -might- create a new second life, Microsoft is -poised- to buy stock in Facebook, there have been -talks- that Mac OS X won't run on 800 MHz machines.

    Now facts... facts I have no time for. Facts are depressing, facts are cruel and heartless, and facts are used by people such as Jack Thompson. Or, rumor has it that he uses facts, so I suppose in truth he's rumored to have certainty -- which shakes me to the core.

    Also, rumors tell companies like Google what to do next. "Hmm, what will we do tomorrow? Let's see what we're rumored to do? A new Second Life and a puppy-reselling website? We'll need some more Ajax scripters!"

    Oh, rumors, is there anything you can't allude to?

    (not a dig at /., just feeling a little jokey today)

    • "Hmm, what will we do tomorrow? Let's see what we're rumored to do?

      Isn't that how the iphone came about?

  • Rivaling Second Life? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hibiki_r (649814) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:09AM (#20744585)
    Second Life has a good PR team, but that's all they have. They really don't matter. Claiming that they plan to rival Second Life is like claiming that they'll develop an OS that will rival BeOS in market share.

  • Ah, great.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dr_labrat (15478) <.spooner. .at. .gmail.com.> on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:13AM (#20744657) Homepage
    If it ties up with google maps and earth, then I can only assume that given where I live my avatar will be really, really blurry and be wearing flares.

  • virtual inc (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kurtis25 (909650) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:14AM (#20744661)
    This could be more of a tool for companies and others to organize their data on a map in a new way (Google has been doing more for companies on their maps lately). What if you could drive or walk down the road to the local pizza shop and order your pizza or ask an question to the automated worker. Google has much of that information already they just need a way to pass things around (grandcentral, gmail). Flat text on a map isn't always the best. If you have a picture of the front of my shop why not put me in my virtual shop and let me help real life customers. They can virutally watch me cook a pizza and send my driver out and a few minutes later the real driver shows up at the door. It's all about organizing the worlds data in a way people will interact with it.

  • Home (Score:3, Informative)

    by KyoMamoru (985449) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:16AM (#20744695)
    Don't forget that Sony is also launching 'Home' for the PS3 in the coming months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Home [wikipedia.org]
    • Yeah, DEFINITELY don't forget about that. As you can see in the link, they trademarked "Home", so if you're going to talk to people about real-world "homes", you'll just have to find another noun. Might I recommend: domicile, dwelling, hab(itat), pad, crib, and estate.

  • Integration With Google Maps? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by incer (1071224) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:18AM (#20744717)
    Cool... So you would be able to travel all over the place using a virtual alter-ego! Imagine, you could meet your friends over the internet and go to places you usually go, only it's virtual! Isn't that absolutely cool? Wait, even better! Imagine if you could carry with you a GPS device that would allow you to be tracked all over the earth and show your avatar in the client? Wait, even better, let's make that device able to connect to the virtual world and exchange messages... You could use it to meet people near you! I mean, imagine if you could just bring out your gPhone MyWorld Edition and use it to talk to the pretty girl at the other table! Wouldn't that be absolutely cool and bring incredible improvement in personal interaction? You could see all the people near you on this device and you could use it to meet them! (I hope no one takes this seriously....)

    • Re:Integration With Google Maps? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Kelbear (870538) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:44AM (#20745131)
      I'm ashamed to admit that the idea excites me.
    • I would have my virtual avatar use its virtual gPhone to call the pretty girl's virtual avatar's virtual gPhone. Then my virtual avatar would virtually chat up her virtual avatar, and both our avatars would virtually go out to play "virtual virtual ski-ball" (it's just like virtual ski-ball!)

  • new Google rumor (Score:3, Funny)

    by khallow (566160) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:19AM (#20744733)
    I hear that Google is going to make this awesome search engine and make $$$ from the sale of relevant text ads using search engineer queries. Pretty clever!
  • It has been confirmed that Google will create a subsidiary named "The CC Company" and that their virtual environment will be called "The World". The project will be lead by Dr. Harold Hewick, an expert in A.I.

    Rumours of beta-testers suddenly falling in coma after entering "the World" are completely unfounded.

  • 3D social network? (Score:4, Funny)

    by PPH (736903) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:38AM (#20745029)
    What do they mean by "3D social network"? People aren't 3D. They are flat, made up of pixels, usually with a resolution of 1280x1024. At least that's all I've seen of them since the last time I came out of my parents basement.
    • see, lets say you and I are friends, and I have a friend named Jane (I know, no geek has a female friend, but lets just say) And you are friends with Jane too. And lets say Jane has a friend named Teresa (try not to get too excited, she's really a guy, all girls online are). And Teresa is friends with all of us. Now if we connect the lines we can draw lines from friend to friend without intersection on a 2D screen. But now theres Don. Don is friends with all of us too. Woah, now we need a third dimension to

  • First Person Shopper? First Person Person? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stoicfaux (466273) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:48AM (#20745207)

    Normally I consider a Neuromancer type cyberspace to be completely useless way to locate and process data. Functionality > cool factor.

    However, combining it with Google Earth to enable "avatars being able to walk around on actual streets and enter real buildings to check out what's inside and socialize with other avatars" might almost vaguely be a good idea. It's one thing to shop online with a traditional web interface, but it's quite another 'enter' a store and talk in real time with other customers or store personnel. It changes online shopping from a 'research item, browse for lowest price, and buy online' task into a First Person Shopping experience. I find it disturbingly appealing for some reason.

    Combining a generic, omnipresent (i.e. non-Microsoft) video/3D conferencing network would be useful. Instant messaging is great but it's still just text. Video conferencing isn't ubiquitous enough to be useful. (The unwashed IM masses do not use it.) Upgrading instant messaging or chatrooms to a 'First Person Person' experience might take group communication and organization to a new level. Imagine what you could do with political meetings or neighborhood meetings.

    I'm not saying that actual face to face human interaction should be tossed out. A 'First Person' 3D avatar Google Earth could make it easier to attend tedious or 'mandatory' social organizing events such as neighborhood meetings to get petitions signed for new stop signs. Instead of having to rush home after work and fight traffic to make a 7pm neighborhood meeting (which discourages you from participating,) you can just login and participate. Sure you lose some of the social interaction (quality,) but you make up for it with quantity (more people can make it.)

  • Only A Matter Of Time (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @12:07PM (#20745529)
    It's only a matter of time before SL-type worlds interoperate, and there are bridges/portals/stargates to let your avatar travel between all of them.
  • I can just see it: a virtual world as the unifying interface for information about the real world, with news searchable by location and marked on the map. And current satellite images projected onto the virtual ground, allowing users to observe the real world in places they aren't physically located. And, above it all, bloggers looking down from their dirigibles, identifiable by their avatars' red capes and aviator goggles...
  • I'm at ASU and I haven't heard of any collaborations involving this. If it's true they're keeping it under tight wrap.
    • I don't know why people spend money on books or movies - is life so bad they need to escape into an alternative reality?
      • Uhhh...Yes. That usually is the reason why people read or watch fictional books and films: modern life is pretty boring.
    • Most people's lives suck! They work boring jobs with no future. They live mostly just above the poverty line. Things like television, video games, movies, books, irc, MySpace, and SecondLife give their boring existences something stimulating.

      Choose your poison: Religion, Sex, Drugs, Sports, Music, Books, Movies, TV, IRC, MySpace, SecondLife, SLASHDOT.

      Whatever will get your brain to release some Oxytocin and/or other Endorphines. And don't think for a minute any of the options is *better* than any of the oth

    • Re:I don't understand. (Score:5, Funny)

      by king-manic (409855) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @11:38AM (#20745031)
      I don't understand how virtual realities like this have become popular. Do people's real lives suck so badly that they need to frivolously spend money to create their own little world where things don't suck?

      some people knit. Some people have sex. Others create intricate simulated worlds... where they knit and have sex.
    • I'm quite well hooked on it.

      For me it's something like the ultimate combination of a chat and a development platform. My development interests (reputation systems, moderation) also happen to require being part of something that has a decent userbase.
    • Maybe think about it in terms of why The Sims is so popular. I actually remember reading about this guy a few weeks ago in News of The Weird that is a super-stud in Second Life, it was rather comical because he had a virtual marriage, and it sounded like he committed a lot of time to it.

      Yes, some people's lives suck that badly. Others just don't like reality, and still some do it just for fun. Its like drugs maybe? It is the reason people get addicted to WoW.

      It isn't about not meeting people people face

    • Re:I don't understand. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by superpulpsicle (533373) on Tuesday September 25 2007, @12:16PM (#20745625)
      This whole post is opinionated. Is like saying:

      - People's lives suck so much, they wish they were fighting wars. Hence the millions playing CoD, battlefield, quake online.

      - People are so unathletic, they are playing sports games online.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by GameMaster (148118)
      You do realise that WoW is a "me too" game, right? It copied games like Asheron's Call and Everquest which copied games like Sierra's "The Realm" and Meridian59 which copied games like the original Neverwinter Nights and MUDs...etc. Heck, even the storyline is a rip off of Warhammer, which borrows heavily from Tolkien.

      -GameMaster

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